Among the many posts being unearthed amid renewed scrutiny of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s social media history is one in which the new congresswoman implicated “Rothschild Inc” in connection with a deadly forest fire that, she wrote, was started using laser beams from space.
Greene, a freshman Republican from Georgia who made waves during the campaign for her promotion of the QAnon conspiracy theory, made the accusation in a 2018 Facebook post that is no longer visible. In the post, Greene offers a mix of evidence-free speculation as to what caused the 2018 Camp Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres and killed 85 people.
In reality, the fire was determined to have been started by electrical wiring belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric.
In her post, Greene noted that Roger Kimmel, a board member at Pacific Gas and Electric, was also the vice-chairman of Rothschild Inc. Greene also wrote that PG&E had invested in technology to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. She claimed in the post that that technology had caused the fire.
Suggesting that the Rothschild family is conspiring to cause damage for profit is a longstanding anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and one that is baked into the QAnon mythology.
Greene wrote that “there are too many coincidences to ignore.”
Greene has expressed overt and more subtle antisemitic theories over time. In 2018 she shared a video, also on Facebook, that lambasted “Zionist supremacists” and advanced the “great replacement” theory, which falsely alleges that Jews are conspiring to undermine white-majority countries by bringing in non-white immigrants.
Multiple Democrats are seeking to expel Greene from Congress, citing her expression of conspiracy theories and past social media posts threatening violence against lawmakers. They include Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida who said, “Many members of Congress are afraid to be in the building with her.” But a two-thirds majority of Congress would need to approve for that to happen.
Republican leaders have appointed Greene to the House Education Committee.